The Men Who Would Be King

I can’t wait to get my hands on this book: The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks. All the reviews I’ve read so far indicate a well researched book, and there appears to be plenty of animation-related company history as well. Here is a link to a Businessweek review of the book, and here is an interview with the author Nicole Laporte. In the interview, when asked whether DreamWorks will ever top Pixar, Laporte gives the following answer:

The Pixar culture is the anti-Hollywood studio. It’s based in Northern California. They nurture these ideas over years. At Dreamworks, it’s much more about the way a live action movie gets made. You hire Judd Apatow to come in one day and write some jokes and punch it up. At this point, Pixar is head and shoulders above everyone. I don’t see them passing on the crown any time soon. But I think Katzenberg has seen the folly of his ways. I think he realized you have to let the artist be the artist.

Buy the book on Amazon.com for $18.50.